Miriam Bruhn
Biographic Data
| ID | 5852888 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Miriam Bruhn |
| GIVEN NAMES | Miriam |
| FAMILY NAME | Bruhn |
| SIGNATURE | BRUHN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | World Bank |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Government Support and Firm Performance During Covid-19
This paper assesses the medium-run effects of government support to firms during the COVID-19 crisis and whether the effectiveness of this support varied with its timing. Using data from three rounds of the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys COVID-19 Follow-up Surveys carried out between May 2020 and August 2022, it relates government support in Round 1 and 2 with firm performance in Round 3. Our results add to the existing literature on government …
The Long-Term Impact of High School Financial Education
As the financial system expands to new clients and services, countries are promoting financial education, with unknown long-run returns. In 2011, we studied the short-run impact of a comprehensive financial education program through a randomized controlled trial with 892 high schools in Brazil. This paper uses administrative data for 16,000 students over the next nine years to measure the program's long-term impact. We find that treatment student…
Competition and firm recovery post-Covid-19
Borrower leakage from costly screening
Can Wage Subsidies Boost Employment in the Wake of an Economic Crisis? Evidence from Mexico
This paper measures the employment effect of a programme in Mexico that granted firms wage subsidies during the recent economic crisis. I use monthly administrative data at the industry level, along with Euclidean distance matching to construct groups of eligible and ineligible durable goods manufacturing industries that display statistically identical preprogramme trends in employment. Difference-in-difference results show a positive but not sta…
The minimal impact of a large-scale financial education program in Mexico City
A tale of two species
Good, Bad, and Ugly Colonial Activities
Levels of development vary widely within countries in the Americas. We argue that part of this variation has its roots in the colonial era, when colonizers engaged in different economic activities in different regions of a country. We present evidence consistent with the view that “bad” activities (those that depended heavily on labor exploitation) led to lower economic development today than “good” activities (those that did not rely on labor ex…
License to Sell
This paper estimates the economic effects of a recent reform that simplified business entry regulation in Mexico. The reform was introduced in different municipalities at different points in time. Using microlevel data, I find that the reform increased the number of registered businesses by 5%. This increase was due to former wage earners' opening businesses. Former unregistered business owners were not more likely to register their business afte…
Gender differences in the impact of banking services
Legislative malapportionment and institutional persistence
This paper argues that legislative malapportionment, denoting a discrepancy between the share of legislative seats and the share of population held by electoral districts, serves as a tool for pre-democratic elites to preserve their political power and economic interests after a transition to democracy. The authors claim that legislative malapportionment enhances the pre-democratic elite s political influence by over-representing areas that are m…
In Pursuit of Balance
We present new evidence on the randomization methods used in existing experiments, and new simulations comparing these methods. We find that many papers do not describe the randomization in detail, implying that better reporting is needed. Our simulations suggest that in samples of 300 or more, the different methods perform similarly. However, for very persistent outcome variables, and in smaller samples, pair-wise matching and stratification per…
In Pursuit of Balance
We present new evidence on the randomization methods used in existing experiments, and new simulations comparing these methods. We find that many papers do not describe the randomization in detail, implying that better reporting is needed. Our simulations suggest that in samples of 300 or more, the different methods perform similarly. However, for very persistent outcome variables, and in smaller samples, pair-wise matching and stratification per…
Legislative malapportionment and institutional persistence
This paper argues that legislative malapportionment, denoting a discrepancy between the share of legislative seats and the share of population held by electoral districts, serves as a tool for pre-democratic elites to preserve their political power and economic interests after a transition to democracy. The authors claim that legislative malapportionment enhances the pre-democratic elite s political influence by over-representing areas that are m…
License to Sell
This paper estimates the economic effects of a recent reform that simplified business entry regulation in Mexico. The reform was introduced in different municipalities at different points in time. Using microlevel data, I find that the reform increased the number of registered businesses by 5%. This increase was due to former wage earners' opening businesses. Former unregistered business owners were not more likely to register their business afte…
Gender differences in the impact of banking services
Good, Bad, and Ugly Colonial Activities
Levels of development vary widely within countries in the Americas. We argue that part of this variation has its roots in the colonial era, when colonizers engaged in different economic activities in different regions of a country. We present evidence consistent with the view that “bad” activities (those that depended heavily on labor exploitation) led to lower economic development today than “good” activities (those that did not rely on labor ex…
A tale of two species
The minimal impact of a large-scale financial education program in Mexico City
Can Wage Subsidies Boost Employment in the Wake of an Economic Crisis? Evidence from Mexico
This paper measures the employment effect of a programme in Mexico that granted firms wage subsidies during the recent economic crisis. I use monthly administrative data at the industry level, along with Euclidean distance matching to construct groups of eligible and ineligible durable goods manufacturing industries that display statistically identical preprogramme trends in employment. Difference-in-difference results show a positive but not sta…
Borrower leakage from costly screening
Competition and firm recovery post-Covid-19
The Long-Term Impact of High School Financial Education
As the financial system expands to new clients and services, countries are promoting financial education, with unknown long-run returns. In 2011, we studied the short-run impact of a comprehensive financial education program through a randomized controlled trial with 892 high schools in Brazil. This paper uses administrative data for 16,000 students over the next nine years to measure the program's long-term impact. We find that treatment student…
Government Support and Firm Performance During Covid-19
This paper assesses the medium-run effects of government support to firms during the COVID-19 crisis and whether the effectiveness of this support varied with its timing. Using data from three rounds of the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys COVID-19 Follow-up Surveys carried out between May 2020 and August 2022, it relates government support in Round 1 and 2 with firm performance in Round 3. Our results add to the existing literature on government …
Business (8 works) · Economics (7 works) · Finance (7 works) · Taxation and Compliance Studies (5 works) · Economic growth (4 works) · Entrepreneurship (4 works) · Labour economics (4 works) · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Wage (4 works)